- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 3 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to increase the level of free access to Historic Scotland properties.
Answer
Historic Scotland plans to continue the significant progress achieved in recent years in enabling free access to its properties. There are in excess of 250 sites throughout Scotland to which the general public have free access all year round.
Progress has also been made on a number of initiatives including the Free Weekend, held annually in April. Last year, 58,500 visitors took advantage of the Free Weekend to visit the 74 paying sites throughout Scotland, including Edinburgh, Stirling and Urquhart Castles. There is also free access to Edinburgh Castle, St Andrews Castle and St Andrews Cathedral on St Andrew’s Day eachyear.
Historic Scotland also operates a free educational visit scheme which attracted 66,660 free visits last year.
In recent years, Historic Scotland has focused on community engagement and significantly increased its levels of community based activity and access.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 2 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how it is helping schools to promote the teaching of music.
Answer
It is the responsibility of theindividual education authorities and head teachers to make decisions on how bestto promote the teaching of music. The Scottish Executive does, however, provide adviceon the provision of music tuition in the classroom, primarily in the form of curriculumguidelines.
The Scottish Arts Council hasbeen charged by the First Minister with administering £17.5 million over three yearsfrom 2003–06 to assist education authorities in ensuring that every primary schoolpupil has the opportunity to have at least one year’s free music tuition beforethey reach primary 6.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 01 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Margaret Curran on 2 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-13224 by Ms Margaret Curran on 31 January 2005, whether it will publish all correspondence between the office of the First Minister and the BBC in relation to Wark Clements' production, "The Gathering Place."
Answer
Following a search of ourfiles, we have found a letter dated 24 October 2003from John McCormick, BBC Scotland Controller, to the First Minister.I have placed a copy in the Parliament’s Reference Centre (Bib. number 35515). Theletter covered a copy of Mr McCormick’s letter to the Fraser Inquiry which wassent to the First Minister for Information.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to extend Social Inclusion Partnerships' arts projects in each of the next three years and, if so, which organisations have applied for this support.
Answer
The Scottish Arts Council’sArts and Social Inclusion Scheme ended in 2003. The council’s new LocalAuthority Partnership Fund will target areas of disadvantage with new artists-in-residenceprojects. Decisions on which areas will benefit from the new scheme are stillunder consideration.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have taken part in Social Inclusion Partnerships' arts projects in each of the last three years.
Answer
The Executive’s culturalagency, the Scottish Arts Council, does not hold data of this description. the answer to S2W-14304 answered 1 March 2005, refers to the number of SocialInclusion Partnership arts projects which participated in the Scottish ArtsCouncil’s Social Inclusion scheme. All answers to written parliamentaryquestions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility forwhich can be found at
http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive what its strategy is to promote the work of Scottish painters internationally.
Answer
The Scottish Executive aims to ensure that Scottish artistic talent receives both national and international recognition. Our policy in this area is delivered principally by the Scottish Arts Council (SAC).
The SAC’s Visual Arts Department has supported a number of projects which involve international working, funding artists to work and exhibit abroad. The table details the level of SAC activity in this area in recent years:
Visual Arts International Activity
| | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 |
| Total Number of Projects | 38 | 48 | 89 |
| Total Investment | £70,533 | £126,842 | £106,059 |
A high profile initiative in this period was the presentation of the first independent Scottish showcase at the 2003 Venice Biennale, one of the most significant events in the international calendar for cutting-edge contemporary art. There will also be a Scottish showcase at the 2005 Venice Biennale, presented by the SAC, the British Council Scotland and the National Galleries of Scotland.
In addition, the SAC is working in partnership with the British Council Scotland on some international initiatives and has created a shared post of head of international arts. Through this post the two organisations are developing an International Arts Strategy which it is hoped will be launched in the next few months.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive which Social Inclusion Partnerships' arts projects are supported under the Scottish Art Council's social inclusion scheme, broken down by local authority area.
Answer
A breakdown of SIP arts projectsacross local authority areas supported by the Scottish Arts Council’s Arts and SocialInclusion Scheme is listed below.
Scottish Arts Council SocialInclusion Scheme Grants
| Project | Award |
| Alloa South And East SIP | 45,283 |
| Ballochgoy Social Inclusion Partnership - Step-Up Project | 22,750 |
| Blantyre and North Hamilton Social Inclusion Partnership | 88,574 |
| Clackmannanshire Strategic Alliance SIP | 10,000 |
| Glasgow Alliance - Big Step Care Leavers | 64,617 |
| Glasgow Alliance - East End Social Inclusion Partnership | 3,300 |
| Glasgow Alliance - Greater Easterhouse | 150,000 |
| Glasgow Alliance - Greater Govan SIP | 70,000 |
| Glasgow Alliance - Greater Pollock SIP | 55,000 |
| Glasgow Alliance - North Glasgow SIP | 76,650 |
| Gorbals Arts Strategy Group | 55,189 |
| Great Northern SIP (GNP) | 20,000 |
| Highlands and Islands Social Inclusion Partnership | 39,340 |
| Levern Valley Partnership | 9,394 |
| Paisley Partnership Regeneration Company | 91,319 |
| Penilee Social Inclusion Partnership (Glasgow) | 13,400 |
| Scottish Borders Social Inclusion Partnership | 15,300 |
| South Edinburgh Partnership | 21,010 |
| Tranent Social Inclusion Partnership | 104,343 |
| West Dunbartonshire Partnership | 110,000 |
| West Lothian Social Inclusion Partnership | 15,955 |
| Total | 1,081,424 |
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Tuesday, 08 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Patricia Ferguson on 1 March 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many Scottish people won world and international medals in each of the last three years, which medals were won and for what disciplines.
Answer
The table sets out thenumber of Scottish people who have won medals at senior level in the Olympic,Paralympic and Commonwealth Games and in World and European competitions ineach of the last three years. Given that some Scots will have won medals inmore than one of these years, the total for the three years is not the sum of the three.
| Sport (2002) | Number of Scottish Medallists | Total Medals Won | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Aquatics | 3 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Athletics | 3 | 4 | | 1 | 3 |
| Badminton | 12 | 12 | | | 12 |
| Bowls | 9 | 9 | 9 | | |
| Boxing | 3 | 3 | 1 | | 2 |
| Curling | 15 | 15 | 10 | | 5 |
| Cycling | 4 | 7 | 3 | | 4 |
| Disabled Athletics | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| Disabled Curling | 5 | 5 | | | 5 |
| Gymnastics | 2 | 2 | 1 | | 1 |
| Judo | 11 | 14 | 1 | 6 | 7 |
| Shooting | 4 | 4 | | 3 | 1 |
| Snooker | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| Squash | 4 | 4 | | 4 | |
| Tug of War | 8 | 8 | | 8 | |
| Weightlifting | 1 | 1 | | | 1 |
| Total for 2002 | 86 | 97 | 26 | 28 | 43 |
| Sport (2003) | Number of Scottish Medallists | Total Medals Won | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Aquatics | 3 | 5 | 2 | 3 | |
| Archery | 1 | 1 | | | 1 |
| Athletics | 5 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Bowls | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| Boxing | 2 | 2 | 2 | | |
| Canoeing | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| Curling | 9 | 9 | 5 | 4 | |
| Cycling | 3 | 4 | 2 | | 2 |
| Disabled Athletics | 3 | 5 | 4 | 1 | |
| Football | 5 | 5 | | 5 | |
| Golf | 6 | 6 | 6 | | |
| Orienteering | 1 | 2 | 1 | | 1 |
| Rowing | 1 | 1 | 1 | | |
| Snowsport | 3 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Triathlon | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Water Skiing | 1 | 1 | | | 1 |
| Total for 2003 | 47 | 58 | 30 | 18 | 10 |
| Sport (2004) | Number of Scottish Medallists | Total Medals Won | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Athletics | 1 | 1 | | | 1 |
| Bowls | 10 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| Boxing | 4 | 5 | 5 | | |
| Canoeing | 2 | 5 | | 3 | 2 |
| Cycling | 3 | 10 | 7 | | 3 |
| Disabled Aquatics | 7 | 19 | 6 | 11 | 2 |
| Disabled Athletics | 1 | 1 | | | 1 |
| Disabled Bowling | 5 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Disabled Curling | 5 | 5 | 5 | | |
| Disabled Cycling | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Disabled Shooting | 1 | 1 | 1 | | |
| Golf | 7 | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 |
| Judo | 1 | 2 | | 1 | 1 |
| Lacrosse | 39 | 39 | | 16 | 23 |
| Rowing | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Sailing | 1 | 1 | 1 | | |
| Snooker | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| Snowsport | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Squash | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| Triathlon | 1 | 1 | | 1 | |
| Tug of War | 24 | 24 | 16 | 8 | |
| Total for 2004 | 120 | 156 | 60 | 55 | 41 |
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Jim Wallace on 25 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many students completed physical education teaching courses in each of the last five years.
Answer
The table below shows the numbers of graduates from physical education teacher training courses for the years 1998-99 to 2002-03 (the most recent year for which data are available at present).
Teacher Training Graduates in Secondary Level Physical Education 1998-99 to 2002-03
| Year | Graduates1,2 |
| 1998-99 | 60 |
| 1999-2000 | 65 |
| 2000-01 | 60 |
| 2001-02 | 100 |
| 2002-03 | 95 |
Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency.
Notes:
1. All numbers have been rounded to the nearest five.
2. Includes Bachelor of Education (BEd) and Postgraduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) graduates from Scottish higher education institutions.
- Asked by: Michael Matheson, MSP for Central Scotland, Scottish National Party
-
Date lodged: Wednesday, 09 February 2005
-
Current Status:
Answered by Peter Peacock on 23 February 2005
To ask the Scottish Executive how many qualified physical education teachers have been in post in primary schools in each of the last three years.
Answer
The available information from the 2003 Teacher Census shows there are 92 full-time equivalent (FTE) primary teachers with physical education as their main subject taught and 9 with it as their other subject.
The previous teacher census was in 1998. The census is now being carried out annually. Comparative figures between 2003-04 and 2004-05 will not be available until the results of the 2004 census are published later this year.
